Your Long Term Review Jebao DC Controllable Return Pump ?

I have 4 x WP60 + 5 x DCT15000 + 6 x DC12000

3 of the DCT15000 are returns to my DT
2 are to create pressure for my injection skimmer

4 of the DC12000 are for my surge + skimmer feed + UV feed + ATS

and I keep one DC12000 as a spare.

One of the DC12000 has failed after about 2.5 years. The rest are working.

My experience has been good because I clean the pumps regularly. While that seems like a lot of work, it really isn't. I use muriatic acid and that cuts down the time from hours to minutes. The cost difference compared to other options for this many pumps would have shut down my ability to even be in this hobby.

I think if I had a FOWLR tank where I wasn't dosing insane levels of calcium and alkalinity, I wouldn't need to clean them more than once a year.
 
Thanks to all the reviews in this post, I just ordered a DC12000 for my 120G Cube for the main return.

I still have a sequence pump I'll be using for my closed loop (assuming the new seals keep it from leaking).

Can't wait to get it hooked up and replace the massive external pump I currently have hooked up.
 
I've been using a dc12000 and dc3000 for over two years with success. I have cleaned both once. I have spares that are just new in box. I also have been running two in skimmers, again with spares sitting on my shelf, I'm pretty happy with them.
 
DC12000 stopped working at the 6 month mark, never replaced and went back to a WaterBlaster.
DCT6000 going on 1 year and still working fine.
 
karimwassef said:
did you clean it?
Click to expand...

Yes I did. I believe it was the pump electronics. The pump would be dead, I would unplug it and it would startup for 15 secs and shut down. Impeller spun freely upon inspection and cleaning. Brick would stay lit if not hooked up to the controller which leads me to believe that it's not the power supply.

Either way, Fish Street would not replace it since I technically had it for 13 months (did not put into service immediately) and I did not trust it enough to replace.
 
The electronics would usually fail so it doesn't start at all. Starting then stopping usually means that the resistance to turn went up and it shut down to protect itself. Sometimes if the impeller moves but there's still buildup inside, the high speed causes excessive friction.

If you haven't thrown it out, you might want to try to give it another go. I had one do the same with me and I was about to throw it out, but my dad decided he could do a better job cleaning it (and he did).
 
I have the following set of Jebaos:

1x DCT15000
2x DC12000
1x DC6000
2x PP8
4x RW15
4x PP15
5x Jebao-Apex Adapters

Some of the return pumps are a little over 2yrs old with the rest being a bit over 1yr old. I guess I can consider myself lucky that out of 14 pumps I've only had one RW15 go bad and it happened while it was still under warranty so I got a replacement motor at no cost.

If you give them the proper maintenance I don't see why they shouldn't last.
 
Don't have long term view, but my short-term view is that they stink on ice. One lasted 3 months; the other 4 months. Pure junk IMO.
 
AddictReef said:
DC6000 running 14 months, cleaned it once. I'm very satisfied.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I just had to replace an impeller on one of my DCT 6000s after about a year. It stopped working due to lack of maintenance. There was some calcium build up that caused the impeller to stick to the ceramic bearing. The pump was so strong that it was still spinning in the rubber piece that holds the bearing. I ordered 2 replacement impellers for about $14 each. I will now be inspecting my pumps every 3 months.
 
Pablos RSM 450 said:
I just had to replace an impeller on one of my DCT 6000s after about a year. It stopped working due to lack of maintenance. There was some calcium build up that caused the impeller to stick to the ceramic bearing. The pump was so strong that it was still spinning in the rubber piece that holds the bearing. I ordered 2 replacement impellers for about $14 each. I will now be inspecting my pumps every 3 months.
Click to expand...

I had this same issue. A vinegar bath cleared it up though.
 
Pablos RSM 450 said:
I tried the vinegar bath and it didnt work. It usually has worked for my other pumps.
Click to expand...

I had to vinegar bath it, force the parts to spin by hand that were locked up (this loosened a bunch of the calcium buildup), then I gave it another bath. I may have repeated a couple times I think. Anyway, it was good as new after. Unfortunately I thought it was shot at first and replaced the pump entirely. It's currently on water mixing duty.
 
JSimpson said:
I bought my first DC-6000 about 14 months ago. It died within two or three weeks. Seller sent me a replacement pump body, which has now been running 13 months non-stop. Like you, I'm curious to see how well these pumps last over several years or more instead of 6-12 months. Same with the Jebao powerheads - lots of folks swear by them but they've been out less than two years so nobody knows how they are going to hold up long term yet.

I always take it with a grain of salt when someone says "these things are going to last forever - mine's been running four months already without a problem"
Click to expand...

I thought I would give an update since this thread is about long term reliability. As mentioned 21 months ago, my first DC-6000 died the first month. I've now been running its replacement continuously since December, 2013. Now just a month or two shy of 3 full years and this thing has been rock solid reliable.

I was skeptical at first but am now very pleased with it.



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I'll toss my experience in here as well:

I currently have 2 Rw-4's, 1 Rw-8, 1 DC6000, and 1 DC12000.
I've had one rw-4 for over 2 years now, no problems. clean only when it starts to slow down. the other rw-4 is probably a year old, same cleaning schedule.

The Rw-8 is about a year old as well, but it's too powerful for either of my tanks, so it just mixes water. cleaned only when it doesn't spin anymore.

The DC-6000 is now 2 years old. Used in sump. Never been taken out for cleaning. Ever. Runs constantly at 100%. 4' head height. shuts down 3 times a day for automatic fish feeding.
It's in my small bedroom, no doors on the stand, and it's dead silent. The only time I can hear it run is when It first starts up. That's with a dead silent overflow as well.
Recently bought a DC12000 as a backup in case it takes a dump.

I also have an MP40QD, and an MP10es. Both are really nice powerheads, and have great preset programs to run. However, I can't justify the price of them when I can buy literally 2 Jebao's and get some wild water movement, and have a backup.
I plan on using Jebao stuff again when I setup my 180 gallon tank.

For the price, I'm really impressed with my Jebao equipment.
 
Though regularly cleaned, none of my Jebao pumps made it much more than 2 years. No more cheap Chinese knock-offs for me; sticking with the overpriced US/European stuff. Though I appreciate that the lifetime costs may be comparable, the lack of reliability simply risks too much $$$ sunk into livestock.
 
For my return pump I went with a Waveline DC12000, but I have two Jebao RW15s in my 120 that have been running for a year. The leds stopped lighting up on one of the controller pads, but I switched them over to my Vertex Cerebra controller about a month ago. So, I'm not using the stock controllers anymore. I think the RW15s do a great job for the money and wouldn't mind seeing Jebao release a more expensive higher end product. Not sure what changes were made to the PP15s. I'm sure I'll stick with Jebao for powerheads instead of Ecotech, but when I need more flow I would consider a couple of Gyres.
 
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